Erik Strandness reflects on how we get to heaven and what that means for us

We humans have a notorious knack for minimising our faults. We know we should behave better but rather than appealing to a higher standard we use our fellow-man as a yardstick. Acutely aware of our own faults we temper our disappointment by scrutinising the behaviour of our neighbour and concluding we aren’t so bad after all. Why do we care about the way we act and think? If we are just evolved animals, then we need to banish those feelings of guilt and cut our neurotransmitters a little slack. But we don’t! We believe that we must appease a ghost haunting our well-oiled biological machines. Why?

Setting the bar

The Pew Research Centre found that, “roughly seven-in-ten (72%) Americans say they believe in heaven — defined as a place ’where people who have led good lives are eternally rewarded.’” All religious traditions have well defined parameters of behaviour which they believe qualifies its adherents for the afterlife. Buddhism promotes walking the eightfold path. Hindus perform acts of charity to acquire good karma and work off bad karma. Even those with no specific religious affiliations believe… (Register to read the rest of the article)